This 1825 catalogue of books belonged to the German-born Rev. Frederich Rudolph Kaufmann, pastor of the Lutheran Church in Cape Town from 1817-1827. Kaufmann played an important role in the establishment of the South African Public Library and was librarian there in 1821. Also in 1821, Kaufman and J. H. Von Manger published a catalogue of the Dessinian Collection. The present catalogue has a handwritten name on the title page.
Kaufmann’s personal collection of books consists of titles in Hebrew (3); Greek (10); Latin (28); English (19), French (5); German (49); and Dutch (62). Books in Greek include Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, as well as works by Aristopheanes, Anacreon, and Hesiod. Books in Latin include bibles, theological tracts, and works by Cicero, Tacitus, Virgil, Ovid, and Catullus. Books in English are primarily works of history by Hume, Gibbon, Robertson, Russell, and Goldsmith, but also volumes of The Idler (1795), The Spectator (1816), and Burke’s Maxims (1811). Books in French include the works of Marmontel and one of the few works of fiction: Don Quichotte (1774). German books are mainly theological or works of history but also include Funke’s Natur-Geschichte (1811) and works on botany, mathematics, and demographics, as well as Eshenburg’s Hanbuch der Klassichen Literatur (1808). Dutch books are mainly psalms, theological tracts, or works of history/travel such as Kranz’s Historie can Groenland (1767) and Mamimilian’s Reize naar Brasilien in de Jaren 1815-1817 (1822).
PF
